When I moved into my first apartment at the ripe old age of 18, my mom let me take my bedroom furniture with me, and she bought me a nice set of pots and pans, but I was on my own for the rest of it.  I bought a table at a rent-to-own store (THE most perfect quarters table in the WORLD, I should add) and I bought a sofa and loveseat from a friend.  For $75 total.  And my friend had bought it at a garage sale prior to that.

It was  … in a nutshell … the most perfect sofa ever.  Wide enough that Blaine and I could both lie down on it to watch tv or nap.  Granted, that was quite a few pounds ago, and back when we were young and cuddly enough that we wanted to do that sort of thing …. now, we own a king size bed and each of us threaten the other with bodily harm if they encroach so much as an INCH on the wrong side.  Ahhhhh, true love.

We had that sofa and love seat for several years before getting married, moving to our first military base, and deciding the time was right for us to buy “real” furniture. We were growing up, and entering the world of “entertaining others” and did we really want to do it with hand-me-down furniture?   So we splurged on a matching sofa, loveseat and chair, which were good enough, but suddenly no longer wide enough for us to share.  Which was sort of sad, really. 

We had *that* furniture for about twelve years before deciding it was time for new.  It looked good for a while, but then we got dogs, and then kids, and then in a moment of very bad (or very good, depending on your perspective) timing, the day before we donated it to The Airman’s Attic on base, Brayden threw up all over it.   So, I was not too sad to see it go.

To replace that, we bought furniture that I LOVED when I saw it in the showroom.  Plaid sleeper sofa and loveseat, floral overstuffed chair and ottoman, with about a dozen matching pillows for all of it.  I spied it at the store, and bought it without even sitting in it.  THAT was how much I loved it.   It was clearly my Martha Stewart Living phase, and I knew I would never need another set of furniture.   And I continued to love, love, love it, with all my heart and soul  ……….. until we had it in our house for about half an hour.

First of all, it was total crap.  Every speck of dirt showed and when you’d try to clean it you’d get a huge water stain.  We’d had it less than a month and the skirting was falling off.  It fell off on a regular basis after that.  We got tired of calling the company to repair it, so Blaine started tacking it back up with a staple gun and duct tape.  No lie.   ‘Cause we’re classy like that.  The sleeper sofa might have been THE most uncomfortable sofa-bed in the world, and the fabric on the cushions was itchy.  You couldn’t take a nap on it, or even sit on it in shorts, without putting down a blanket to keep your legs from scratching.

I hated that furniture.

When we moved here to OKC, we moved that junk up to the game room and bought a new sofa.  Which I liked ok.  Actually, which I liked a lot.  The fabric doesn’t show a ton of dirt, and it’s bumply, which I love.  But the arms are too high for comfortable napping.  Way too high.  You wake up with a serious crick in your neck.  It still wasn’t wide enough for Blaine and I to share.  And every time I would take a nap, I would promise myself that the next time I bought a sofa, I would remember to LAY DOWN ON IT in the furniture store and make sure it was comfortable.  And big.

I bought a new sofa last week, for our renovated den.  Can you guess what I FORGOT to do at the store??  So imagine my pleasant surprise when I lay down on the new sofa today and discovered —- the arms are the exact right height for naps.  No pillow necessary.  And the fabric is comfortable … not too hot, not itchy.  OK, sure, its still not wide enough for Blaine and I to share, but let’s be honest, I’m a lot bigger than when we met, so I don’t think the sofa is to blame.  Still, I had a mighty fine nap today on that sofa.

So what is the moral of the story?

I should lose weight?

Next time I’m buying a sofa, lay down on it, no matter how silly I look in the store?

No, the moral of the story is that the $75 garage sale hand-me-down sofa is the best one we ever had. 

Although I’m glad I no longer own the world’s greatest quarters table because my kids don’t need to know about that just yet.